Keeping It All In The Family

Tantowi Yahya, 46, made his mark in the entertainment business in the late 1980s as a quiz show host. The fourth of fifth children was a household name long before his younger brother Helmi began climbing the ladder of success. The former host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? enjoys country and western singing and is involved in various social organizations.   

I am the entertainer: Growing up in Palembang, South Sumatra, I always dreamed of being a singer or actor, of one day being a famous performer. I believed I was born to be an entertainer. 

We fought almost every day. There is a big age gap with our older siblings, so it was like the two of us together when we were growing up. But we fought all the time, usually because of jealousy, the “how come he got that and I didn’t?” type. We had different friends and interests.  

Good boys together: Our father had been a successful soccer player, then he broke his leg, so he became a musician. And he then became a Muslim cleric. Both of us were very good boys. Unless we had a good reason, we had to be home every day to perform the early evening prayer together. And we also did the predawn prayer as a family.

Working together was awkward: In the early 1990s, he was hired by Ani Sumardi Productions to work on my teen quiz show Gita Remaja. He was the floor director but I don’t think he felt very comfortable giving me instruction; I was still his big brother. He was only there three months before he moved on. 

Brother’s pride: His success came when my career was going down a bit. To be honest, I was very surprised when he became the king of TV quiz shows and reality programs. I hadn’t seen it coming. He always seemed more comfortable behind the camera, not in front. Jealousy is only to be expected, it’s only human, but I took greater pride in the success of my brother.

Qualities I admire in him: Helmi is focused and full of ideas, and very creative. He is a more exact person than me. We are not best friends, but we are still family. We call or SMS every so often to check how the other is doing. And we go on holiday with our families together. 

Helmi Yahya, 44, put aside number crunching of his accountancy and business management background to become a talent agent, quiz and reality show tycoon and even a basketball commentator.  

He was the outgoing one: When we were small, we were so close, but we fought. He was very dominant and he was more outgoing. I used to give in to him because he was older and bigger than me. It was only when he went to Java to study [at tourism academies in Yogyakarta and then Bandung] that I realized that I missed him.  

Accidental career change: When he was already popular on TV, I was more into the academic side of things, and I went to school in America. I never thought that I would go into TV. I never imagined that I could be like him -- it happened by accident, because we had no presenter [for quiz show Siapa Berani?]. Because when we were small, that was his dream, not mine. 

Competition is OK: Competition is there, it’s good, we compete with everybody, whether it’s Ferdi [Hasan] or Farhan. It disturbs me when people say that I am competing with my brother, because that is the media trying to create a situation. We have different market segments. He is the pure artist; I am a presenter but I also produce.

Qualities I admire in him: He is very professional, and always wants to learn. My educational background is higher, but his knowledge is very broad. He has great language skills, and can do all the accents. He is my teacher, my inspiration and my brother. I am very proud of him.   

We are both winners: I beat him once in the Panasonic awards, and he beat me several  times. And then I won for top reality show, and he was selected for best quiz [Who Wants to be a Millionaire?] That was very funny and pleasing to us.

Sticking together: It’s just the two of us from our family living here in Jakarta. If something happens to me, he needs to know.

+ Bruce Emond

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